A February 2012 search engine search on DPRK and illness #5 “五号病”朝鲜 limited to the last month brings up many articles and BBS chatter talking about this outbreak. One posting said “I went on line and found out that the outbreak in Hebei came from diseased animals that entered China from Liaoning Province”高丽参是朝鲜特产，朝鲜在唐朝就叫“高丽”，简直就是睁眼说瞎话！他还说他们那旮答猪肉炖粉条，我上网一查才知道猪身上的五号病就是首先从辽宁传入内地的。

The Baidu article on Hoof and Mouth disease http://bk.baidu.com/view/34174.htm mentions other popular names for the disease (it seems in practice the media can talk about the disease using the popular name while confirmation of the disease in its official name is more sensitive) . I bolded some more

The veterinary disease foot and mouth disease, also often called foot and mouth disease (FMD) , not to be confused with the human disease hand, foot and mouth disease, is endemic in China but has long been a taboo topic. It has a number of Chinese names, the most common being disease number 5. The Chinese media often says that outbreaks in China of FMD are due to some foreign infection source, the outbreak is quelled, and China is then OK. Sounds like the story on AIDS and some other human diseases! Veterinary diseases were secret until about ten years ago but they still seem to be often taboo. Sure, no FMD, just disease number five, so no need to tell anybody.

Confucius would have told them the propaganda department types about the importance of rectifying names. Chinese domestic media reports often use a euphemism “Disease Number Five” 五号病 rather than FMD in reports because of the sensitivity of the FMD issue. In March 2010, Southern Rural News (Nanfang Nongcunbao) in an article “Breaking the Hoof and Mouth Disease Taboo” noted that FMD has long been covered up in China by referring to it as disease number five. http://www.xumuren.cn/viewnews-81823.html

FMD is also called canker 口疮 or hoof jaundice 蹄癀 in China so information on FMD in China can be found online using those words as search terms as well.

One can find online many provincial orders and regulations on FMD control predating China’s acknowledgment that the disease existed in China, for example Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region 1991 regulation on preventing the spread of Disease No.5 http://www.law-lib.com/law/law_view.asp?id=22056

CANADA AND CHINA are seeking to head off a diplomatic flap caused by the slaughter of 90 dairy cows, owned by a Canadian concern operating in China, because of a highly contagious livestock ailment that officially doesn’t exist in the country. A representative of the Canadian Consulate in the western city of Chongqing said they would meet this week with Chinese authorities to seek an explanation. The incident unfolded June 30 in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan when agricultural officials presented I-CAN Dairy Ltd., a subsidiary of Vancouver agricultural consultancy CRDA (Canada), with documents alleging that the herd was infected with foot-and-mouth-disease. Officials immediately trucked away the animals, and shot and burned them on a hillside in Yunnan’s Yiliang County.

Executives for the Canadian firm said the herd, bought in China for 850,000 yuan ($102,700), was certified free of the disease just a week before the cull. They said local authorities didn’t give them an opportunity to review results of blood tests conducted by the local authorities, nor did they allow the company to conduct its own tests. “What a mess,” said Jack Tang, president of CRDA. On top of that, China has repeatedly insisted that the nation is free of foot-and-mouth disease; the Ministry of Agriculture’s monthly Official Veterinary Bulletin shows zero reported cases of the illness for June 2003. The incident underscores the continued lack of transparency in China’s agriculture industry nearly two years after Beijing pledged to open the sector to foreign investors as part of its entry into the World Trade Organization. Soybean and other agricultural-product importers complain that Chinese quarantine authorities routinely turn back shipments of soybeans and other goods, alleging contamination but refusing to allow independent testing of samples. Western diplomats charge that such behavior is part of a series of protectionist, nontariff barriers erected by China to protect its own farmers. Yang Zhiming, deputy director of Yunnan’s Department of Agriculture, says the cull of I-CAN’s livestock was part of a wider slaughter that included at least 100 other infected cows in the Kunming area.

Mr. Yang said the government didn’t unfairly target the Canadian concern, and that the cull of the I-CAN cattle occurred only after authorities had shared the results of the blood tests with Mr. Tang. “We know that Mr. Tang has suffered [and] we will continue to support him to help him recover as soon as possible,” Mr. Yang said.

As to the contradiction between the official disclaimer of any cases of the livestock disease and the alleged Yunnan cases, Mr. Yang said, “By the beginning of next year, the Chinese government will make a change in policy by disclosing such cases. China will adhere to international rules. . . . Just like SARS, [foot-and-mouth-disease cases] will be disclosed both domestically and overseas.”

A Beijing-based Western agricultural expert said China’s farm authorities apparently have learned to live with foot-and-mouth disease in domestic cattle herds and don’t usually resort to mass culls of infected animals. Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious virus that infects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle and pigs, causing fever and blisters in the animals’ mouths. It rarely kills animals but can cause significant production loss. An employee of the Canadian consulate in the western city of Chongqing Friday said Canadian diplomats will meet with Yunnan officials this week to discuss the case. They also plan to meet with central authorities on the matter.

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About 高大伟 David Cowhig

Worked 25 years as a US State Department Foreign Service Officer including ten years at US Embassy Beijing and US Consulate General Chengdu and four years as a China Analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Before State I translated Japanese and Chinese scientific and technical books and articles into English freelance for six years. Before that I taught English at Tunghai University in Taiwan for three years. And before that I worked two summers on Norwegian farms, milking cows and feeding chickens.